Method and system for identifying and defining geofences

ABSTRACT

The preferred embodiments of the present invention are directed to an improved mapping and navigational system. Specifically, the present invention is directed to a system for defining and assigning geographical boundaries to points of interests on a graphical map, where the geographical boundaries preferably correlate to spatially defined boundaries of the respective points of interests. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the points of interest, along with the respective defined geographical boundaries, can be transferred from a personal computing device to a telecommunication device, such as a portable communication device, so as to be used for mapping purposes and to set off proximity alerts when the portable communication device, equipped with a GPS unit, enters or exits the geographical boundary of a particular point of interest.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention claims the benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S.provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/659,643 filed Mar. 7, 2005,the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND ART

1. Field of Invention

This present invention relates to a method and system for selecting,assigning, and creating Geofences based on using known map elementsand/or point of interest (POI) data, such as parks, golf courses,schools, buildings, etc. using a plurality of user interface (UI)computing devices. Additionally, this invention combines the use ofsaving these Geofences on a Telecommunication Device (i.e., mobiledevice) that has location capability for the purpose of acting on saidGeofences.

2. Description of the Related Art

Telecommunication devices, specifically wireless telephones, areachieving widespread use today. Such telecommunication devices arecommonly used to establish communication between other telecommunicationdevices. Recently telecommunication devices are becoming more than justcommunication devices, but also a computing platform for executingapplications similar to the early days of the personal computer era,where devices had limited memory and processing resources. Thedifference is that these new telecommunication devices, while currentlyprovide a limited computing platform, also enable wireless data accessto the Internet and expose the telephone's telephony functionality.These new telecommunication devices are well known to people that areskilled in the art.

Prior art systems, such as GPS enabled mobile devices, have been used incombination with Geofences, a common term to those that are skilled inthe art, that defines a virtual spatial boundary (i.e., proximity range)for the purpose of creating triggers when the mobile location enableddevices enter and/or exit said boundaries. The prior art method fordefining these boundaries requires the use of a graphical user interface(UI) tool for creating a polygon shaped “box” and/or trigger lines thatare used to cause events to occur based on the crossing of said lines.Another prior art method of creating Geofences requires selecting apoint feature, such as a latitude and longitude, and then definingeither a radius or major/minor axis for the point feature in order tocreate a boundary around the point feature. This option can be offeredusing default values such that the user is required to enter littleinformation, except the center location of the bounding box.

As people that are skilled in the art will agree, creating a geofence isa difficult spatial concept to represent in one's mind without the aidof a spatial map. Even then it is very difficult to fully represent dueto map scales, etc. For example, a golf course might represent on a mapan irregular shaped polygon which is hard to represent with a circle,rectangle, polygon, etc., and even more difficult to represent if a userhas to draw the geofences using a GUI tool. Using such an irregularlyshaped geofence is difficult for the user to establish in prior artmethods, as well as difficult for inclusion into the mobile device,which will use the said geofences to act upon the required triggerevents.

As people that are skilled in the art will appreciate, providing a meansto significantly simplify this process to a “one-click” model wouldallow the use of implementing geofences for the inclusion into massmarket devices, such as a wireless location-enabled cell phone, etc.

Until now, an adequate solution to these problems has eluded thoseskilled in the art. Thus, there exists a need to provide a solution thatenables users to simply and easily create geofences that are based onreal-world objects without the need to have to draw or model a geofence.For example, if a user would like to create a geofence for the “BoundBrook High School”, then as those skilled in the art would appreciate, auser would only have select the map element, or in this case, the pointof interest (POI), to create a geofence. This invention would correlatethe spatially defined and recorded information and create a geofenceboundary that emulates the actual spatially defined and recordedboundary of the object. This invention provides many important benefitsfor location-based applications which are an important and integral partof improving work flow and/or consumer related processes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and systemfor enabling a very simple and efficient way to easily create and definegeofences using a “one selection” process without the need to eithera-priori know the extent of the object and/or define the boundary, suchas using a map related object, such as a river, stream, ocean, lake,mountain, forest, reservoir, state, city, region, zip code, or the like,or using a point of interest (POI), such as a park, place of worship,school, university, restaurant, mall, or the like.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and systemfor using a “one selection” process for selecting a map or POI databasethat spatially represents the extents of an object. This map data and/orPOI data however consists of the full and detailed spatial informationthat fully defines the object, such as a Park. In one embodiment, a Parkfeature is defined as a single and/or multiple polygon objects thatfully represent the Park feature.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and systemfor allowing map related objects and/or POI objects to be representedusing a plurality and various combinations of spatial representations,such as polygons, polylines, and/or point objects, to fully define thegeofence that mirrors the actual map and/or POI object as accurately aspossible.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method andsystem for allowing map and/or POI point objects, which do not haveextents, to use a default extent, such as a radius to define the objectscorrectly.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method andsystem for allowing map and/or POI objects to automatically have varyingextents based on other geofences and/or map related spatial data in thevicinity of the “selected” map or POI features for defining the extentof the object. For example, in one embodiment, a user that selects arestaurant, which is a point object, in a densely packed metropolitanarea would have a default defined radius that would be much smaller thana similar restaurant in a sparse urban area. This algorithmic approachallows for a more intelligent means to create geofences for the purposeof preventing false positives, etc., when point features are withinclose proximity to other geofences and/or other map objects.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method andsystem for storing these “one selection” geofences onto either a singleserver, cluster server, or the like, or on a mobile handset device whichcalculates the location information for the processing of the geofencetriggers. In one embodiment, a handset that calculates the locationinformation will also store the geofence data locally for use withoutthe need of the network, such as the Internet, Intranet, Extranet, WDN(wireless data network), EDN (engineering data network), or the like,for the processing the geofences to cause trigger events. In anotherembodiment, the handset would send GPS points to a single or distributedand/or clustered server system for the processing of the geofence data.The latter embodiment requires more network traffic than processing thegeofence data locally, since in this invention that data isdifferentially synchronized to the handset, which even further mitigatesthe required network bandwidth for this invention.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method andsystem for representing a plurality of points that define the polygon.Since multiple points make it very difficulty to fully and correctlyrepresent the actual polygon of the map data element and/or POI elementfor devices with limited resources, such as memory, disk space, etc.,this invention provides the capability to decimate the polygon,polyline, or the like, into its minimal representation that representsthe actually map object (i.e., map element and/or POI element). Thisinvention also provides a method to decimate the polygon, polyline, orthe like, below its minimal representation in order to satiate thelimited resources of the device, such as a wireless phone.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method andsystem for providing an interface to input this “one selection” process.This interface can consist of, but is not limited to, voice input, IVR,text, touch pad, keyboard, mouse, multi-modal, or the like, for thepurpose of defining a geofence by selecting a map data element and/orPOI element. For example, in one embodiment, a user can use an IVR voiceinput device to say the name of the POI, such as “Pasadena High School”.This would indicate to the system that a geofence would be sent to themobile location handset that would define a geofence around “PasadenaHigh School”. In this embodiment, when the target mobile locationhandset either enters or leaves this geofence, certain event alertswould be triggered that the user had previously defined for the saidhandset.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method andsystem to allow a user to select an object on a map, such as a mapelement and/or POI object for adding a geofence to a mobile device. Auser only has to select the object to add it to the handset within themap view. Additionally, a user can also drag-and-drop the object to therepresentation of the mobile device for allowing the user to easily adda geofence to a mobile location-enabled device. This enables users toquickly and easily add geofences to devices without having to worryabout the actual boundary and/or draw the polygon to represent thespatial representation that requires a geofence.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a network system for providing a communicationchannel between various wireless and landline computing devices;

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention showing apersonal computer with an integrated web browser;

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention of a wirelessTelecommunication Device and an accompanying high-level block diagram ofa wireless Telecommunication Device;

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a map view and various polygon andpolyline map and POI objects;

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of the various spatial related objectsand their respective geofences representations;

FIG. 6 illustrates another embodiment of the various spatial relatedobjects and their respective geofences representations;

FIG. 7 illustrates yet another embodiment of the various spatial relatedobjects and their respective geofences representations;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

This present invention relates to a method and system for selecting,assigning, and creating Geofences based on using known map elementsand/or point of interest (POI) data, such as parks, golf courses,schools, building, etc. using a plurality of user interface (UI)computing devices. Additionally, this invention combines the use ofsaving these Geofences on a Telecommunication Device (i.e., mobiledevice) that has location capability for the purpose of acting on saidGeofences.

The present invention may be embodied in a pre-commercial (non-public)and internal application called “AtlasLink” which is owned and licensedby Networks In Motion, Inc. of Irvine, Calif.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate high-level diagrams of one embodiment thatis a suitable computing and networking environment in which theinvention may be implemented. The invention will be described in thegeneral context of an application that executes on an operating systemin conjunction with a personal computer or server, but those skilled inthe art will realize that this invention may also be implemented incombination with other program modules. Program modules typicallyinclude routines, programs, data structures, etc. that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Thisinvention is not limited to a typical personal computer, but may also beutilized with other computing systems, such as handheld devices, mobilelap top computers, wireless phones, in-vehicle navigation systems,programmable consumer electronics, mainframe computers, distributedcomputer systems, etc., and the like.

FIG. 1 is a network block diagram illustrating the connection (125 &101) of both wireless 100 and wired 126 Telecommunication devices to anApplication Service Provider (ASP) 123, also referred to as an onlineserver system. This online server system may be configured at a singlelocation and on a single computer, or can be configured as a distributedcomputer system and at different locations. The wireless MobileTelecommunication Devices 100 are wirelessly connected 101 to a nearbywireless base station 102, which are typically connected or have accessto 105 the Internet, Intranet, or Extranet 106. Additionally, a landlineTelecommunication Device 126 is typically connected to a nearby centraloffice 124 which is connected or has access to 123 the Internet,Intranet, or Extranet 106. Additionally, the Application ServiceProvider (ASP) 123 also has access 109 to the Internet, Intranet, orExtranet 106. The ASP 123 generally consists of a front-end firewall andXML router 113 which itself has access (111 & 114 & 119) to other localcomputing modules, such as a database 112, POI server 115, geocodingserver 116, mapping server 117, and webpage client server 118. Theweb-server front-end 118 can be connected to the outside Internet,Intranet, or Extranet 106 either through the local front-end firewall113, or as in this embodiment, via 120 the web server 121, which isconnected 122 directly to the Internet, Intranet, or Extranet 106 byusing a software firewall which is well known to those skilled in theart. Additionally, either mobile 104 or landline 108 computing devices,such as a personal computer, are connected to the Internet, Intranet, orExtranet 106, either directly 107 or through a wireless connection 103and base station 102.

FIG. 2 illustrates a typical personal computer 150, that includes acentral processing unit (CPU) 173, video adapter 172, hard disk drive157, optical disk 158, serial port 159, magnetic disk drive 163, systembus 156, and network interface 176→177 & 167 & 169→109. The hard diskdrive 157 typically refers to a local non-volatile storage system forstoring large amounts of data, such as a web browser program files orcookies or a user's Contact data. The optical disk 158 typically refersto a CD-ROM disk used for storing read-only data, such as aninstallation program. The serial port interface 159 is typically used toconnect 161 the computer 150 to external devices 160, such as akeyboard, mouse, and graphical touch screen interface, and also canconnect 164 to positioning devices 165, such as a GPS receiver. Thekeyboard and mouse 160, amongst other input devices 165, enable users toinput information into the computer 150. The connection 161 & 164 cablescan include a serial cable or universal serial bus (USB) cable. Otherinput devices, that are not shown, may include a joystick, scanner,camera, microphone, or the like. The magnetic disk drive 163 istypically used to store small amounts data, in comparison to a hard 157or optical 158 disk drive, and typically lacks the data transfer ratesof those other storage drives, but it enables both readable and writablecapability. The hard disk drive 157, optical disk drive 158, serial portinterface 159, and magnetic disk drive 163 are all connected to the mainsystem bus 156 of the computer 150 for transferring data. A monitor 170or other type of display device, such as a LCD display, is connected 171to the computer system's 150 video adapter 172, which is connected tothe system bus 156. Additional peripheral output devices, which are notincluded in this embodiment, such as a printer, speaker, etc., can alsobe connected to a personal computer 150. The system bus 156 alsoconnects to the network interface 176, central processing unit (CPU)173, and system memory 151. The system memory 151 contains both randomaccess memory (RAM) 153, and read only memory (ROM) 152, that typicallyconsists of the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) of the computer,necessary for containing basic routines that enable the transfer ofinformation between elements within the personal computer 150. The RAM153 stores a number of program modules, such as the web browser andsynchronization applications 155, and the Operating System 154 of thepersonal computing device 150 or personal computer 150. One example ofsuch a program module 155 would be a web browser that is connected tothe “AtlasLink” server that was previously mentioned.

FIG. 3 illustrates a next generation wireless Telecommunication Device311 which typically includes a display 314, an antenna 313, and a keypad312. The next generation wireless Telecommunication Device 311 & 300, asillustrated in FIG. 3, provides a foundation 302 for running programs orapplications that can access the Telecommunication Device's 311 internalinterfaces, such as the Bluetooth 309, Speech/Audio Codec 308, GPSInterface 307, TAPI (Telephony Application Program Interface) 306Interface, Screen/Keypad API (Application Program Interface) orInterface 305, Camera API 304, or the like as well known to those thatare skilled in the art. As those that are skilled in the art willappreciate, a Telecommunication Device (300 & 311) will also includescheduling/timers 310 for scheduling specific events as is provided withstandard computing platforms. Additionally, next generationTelecommunication Devices (300 & 311) have graphical user interfaces(GUI) 301 for applications to allow user input using a graphical display314. As people skilled in the art will appreciate, these next generationTelecommunication Devices provide the means to access theTelecommunication Devices' internal APIs using a middleware 302platform, such as J2ME or BREW, which are both well known to thoseskilled in the art. This simplifies the development process since thereis significant support for obtaining developer access to theTelecommunication Device's internal APIs, such as the TAPI interface formaking telephone calls and capturing call logs.

The preferred embodiment for illustrating a mapping interface is shownin FIG. 4, this typically consists of a mapping program and/or webbrowser 401, a toolbar 400, a canvas for the map 402 & 404, a cursor forselecting objects 403. Contained in the map are a plurality of mapobjects 405 & 406 & 407 & 408 & 409 & 410 & 411 & 412 which have someshape to them that can be represented by a geofence. A user is able toselect a map object, by which in this preferred embodiment a user woulduse a cursor 403, and then add it to a mobile device. In anotherembodiment, a user selects the map object 405 and then drags-and-drops414 the object onto a representation of the mobile handset 413. In thisembodiment, this operation will send the actual representation of thegeofence to the mobile device. As those skilled in the art willappreciate, a geofence sent to the device will also incorporate a slightbuffer region in order to mitigate false positives, which can beremotely configured on a device-by-device basis.

In another embodiment a user can select a category from a directory orYellow Pages, such as parks. The results would return a list of parks,such as, but not limited to:

-   -   1. Yosemite National Park    -   2. Rocky Mountain Park    -   3. Big Bear

A user would then only need to select the desired park in the list usinga standard GUI interface for the device, which can consist of a touchscreen, rocker control (as used on a wireless device), etc. After theselection has been made, the geofence would be scheduled to be polled orpushed to the mobile location device for user-defined geofence eventalerts.

As shown in FIG. 5, there are a number of map objects shown in a mapview 500 that can be represented using this “one selection” process,such as an Airport 501, Mall 503, Country Club 507, and an office at anaddress 505. When each one of these objects are “selected” using aplurality of means described in this invention, this invention'spreferred embodiment for adding these geofences is to use theDouglas-Peucker algorithm to decimate the polygon, polyline, etc., to aminimal representation that outlines the desired spatial object, and forthat decimated information to be sent to the mobile location device forgeofence triggering.

FIG. 6 illustrates other polygon and polyline items that can begeofenced from a map view 600, such as Dodger Stadium 602 and itsgeofenced representation 601. Additionally, a polyline, such as a river603 can also have a geofenced representation 604 illustrated by a dashedline in this embodiment. For a polyline, a geofenced polygon and/orpolyline with a boundary distance of D distance units that areperpendicular to the polyline that creates the geofenced boundary can becreated for use in event alerts, etc., defined by the user.

FIG. 7, illustrates various additional polygons 701 & 706 & 703 in a mapview 700 and their respective geofenced representations 702 & 705 & 704that are created using this “one selection” process for defining ageofenced boundary.

It should be noted that the present invention may be embodied in formsother than the preferred embodiments described above without departingfrom the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The specificationcontained herein provides sufficient disclosure for one skilled in theart to implement the various embodiments of the present invention,including the preferred embodiment, which should be considered in allaspect as illustrative and not restrictive; all changes or alternativesthat fall within the meaning and range or equivalency of the claim areintended to be embraced within.

1. A machine-readable storage medium containing a set of executableinstructions for causing a computer to perform a one-select method foridentifying a point of interest or map object and a geofence thereof onan electronically generated map, said method comprising the steps of:providing an electronic map including one or more points of interests ormap objects; designating a particular point of interest or map object onsaid electronic map, said particular point of interest or map objectbeing associated with a fixed location within the electronic map;generating geofence data associated with a geofence pre-defined for saidparticular point of interest or map object, said geofence being avirtual fixed boundary surrounding the particular point of interest ormap object within said electronic map, wherein said geofence isrepresented by a spatial representation displayed in the electronic map;sending said geofence data to a mobile communication device upon a userselection of the spatial representation displayed in the electronic map;and generating a notification when the mobile communication deviceenters or exits an actual geographical area corresponding to saidgeofence.
 2. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, whereinsaid geofence is defined along a default extent of said particular pointof interest or map object, said default extent being a pre-recordedboundary of said point of interest or map object, wherein said defaultextent is variable with spatial data related to said particular point ofinterest or map object.
 3. The machine-readable storage medium of claim1, wherein said method further comprises the step of displaying thespatial representation that represents said geofence on said electronicmap.
 4. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein saidpoint of interest is one of a business establishment, religiousestablishment, recreational establishment, and educationalestablishment, and said map object is one of a river, stream, ocean,lake, mountain, forest, and reservoir.
 5. The machine-readable storagemedium of claim 1, wherein said method further comprises the step ofdetermining a population density surrounding the point of interest ormap object, wherein a default extent associated with the geofence isvaried in accordance with the determined population density.
 6. Themachine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein said method furthercomprises the steps of: establishing a communication link with awireless communication network; and sending said geofence data to themobile communication device over the wireless communications network toenable a location-based application that generates the notification. 7.The machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein said methodfurther comprising the step of decimating the geofence data for sendingto the mobile communications device.
 8. The machine-readable storagemedium of claim 7, wherein said step of decimation is performed usingthe Douglas-Peucker algorithm.
 9. A method for identifying and selectinga point of interest or map object and a geofence thereof on anelectronically generated map, said method comprising the steps of:providing an electronic map including one or more points of interests ormap objects; designating a particular point of interest or map object onsaid electronic map, said particular point of interest or map objectbeing associated with a fixed location within the electronic map; andgenerating geofence data associated with a geofence pre-defined for saidparticular point of interest or map object, said geofence being avirtual fixed boundary surrounding the particular point of interest ormap object within said electronic map, wherein said geofence isrepresented by a spatial representation displayed on the electronic map;sending said geofence data to a mobile communication device upon a userselection of the spatial representation displayed in the electronic map;and generating a notification when the mobile communication deviceenters or exits an actual geographical area corresponding to saideofence.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said geofence is definedalong a default extent of said particular point of interest or mapobject, said default extent being a pre-recorded boundary of said pointof interest or map object, wherein said default extent is variable withspatial data related to said particular point of interest or map object.11. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of displaying thespatial representation that represents said geofence on said electronicmap.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein said point of interest is one ofa business establishment, religious establishment, recreationalestablishment, and educational establishment, and said map object is oneof a river, stream, ocean, lake, mountain, forest, and reservoir. 13.The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of determining apopulation density surrounding the point of interest or map object,wherein a default extent associated with of the geofence is varied inaccordance with the determined population density.
 14. The method ofclaim 9, further comprises the steps of: establishing a communicationlink with a wireless communication network; and sending said geofencedata to the mobile communication device over the wireless communicationsnetwork to enable a location-based application that generates thenotification.
 15. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step ofdecimating the geofence data for sending to the mobile communicationsdevice.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said step of decimation isperformed using the Douglas-Peucker algorithm.
 17. The machine-readablestorage medium of claim 1, wherein said geofence data includes datadescribing a buffer region associated with the geofence.
 18. The methodof claim 9, wherein said geofence data includes data describing a bufferregion associated with the geofence.
 19. A method for facilitatinglocation-based applications using geofence data, said method comprising:providing an electronic map with at least one point of interest or mapobject displayed therein, said point of interest or map object definedby a geofence corresponding to a virtual fixed boundary surrounding saidpoint of interest or map object in the electronic map; providing a userinterface to select said point of interest or map object in saidelectronic map, said user interface displaying a plurality of spatialrepresentations including at least one spatial representation thatrepresents said geofence; and in response to selection of said point ofinterest map object, sending data associated with the geofence to alocation-based application that generates a notification when a mobiledevice enters or exits an actual geographical area corresponding to thegeofence.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein said user interfaceincludes a display of multiple polygons, at least one of said polygonsrepresenting said geofence defining said point of interest or map objectin said electronic map.
 21. The method of claim 19, wherein said userinterface includes a directory listing a plurality of points of interestor map objects including said map object in the form of descriptivetext.
 22. The method of claim 19, wherein said data associated with saidgeofence includes data describing a buffer region surrounding said pointof interest or map object.